A question for the pros out there...

octoruss

octoruss

New member
Ok, get this---I'm being asked to make a CD that will be used by a choir to learn thier respective Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass parts. A pianist is coming over tomorrow to play the parts. Ideally there would be four final versions of the same song, but each version would have the respective part (SATB) "highlighted" in the mix so people could hear their part clearly, while still hearing the remaining parts.

The problem is, the score itself is about 40 mins. long, and I have a Roland XP60 with only 2 outputs. At first I thought the pianist would have to record the soprano part on track one, then rerecord the alto part on track 2, layering it so that I could create 4 seperate mixes. But since the score itself is 40 mins, that would take her almost 3 hours to play through all the parts! This is not possible.

I'm looking for creative solutions here folks--I've got an onboard sequencer and a 16 track recorder, but not a lot of time. Is there ANY POSSIBLE WAY she can play it through once, and somehow be able to seperate the parts?

I don't think so, but I'm hoping someone may have a solution for this.
 
It doesn't sound like it. The problem is you would need four discreet outputs from the piano while shwe played all four parts simultainiously. I don't think it's gonna happen.
 
It would be possible on a computer sequencer to add a different tone to the melodies for each part or to bump up the velocity on those parts. It would be very time consuming and tedious but that would be the only way to do it with one original track.

Hopefully there are a lot of repetitive parts that you can loop or copy and paste. That would save some time.

I would also hope that 'being asked' means 'being paid' because this will take several hours. If your not being paid they owe you a big favor.

Maybe you can use the choir for one of your own recordings or at the very least be allowed to do a very good recording of a performance without any audience so you can use the recordings for your own promotions.
 
Looks to me that you're doomed to have to track each of the highlighted parts individually--it's either 3 hours of her time, or five to ten of yours to do Tex's idea.

Try breaking the sessions up into four small ones--two on one day and two on the next day with maybe an hour or two between the daily sessions. This will give your pianist a rest from all the fingerbording, and you will get your results with much better ease.

This is more a case of time and business management, rather than using tricky recording techniques. Use some diplomacy and savvy, and explain the situation. good personal skills are just as important here as the technical skills you're being hired for. Good luck
 
Here's a way you could cut the time in half. Use two keyboards set up one over the other (like two manuals on an organ) - have the pianist simultaneously play soprano part on one while playing alto on the other - record to two seperate tracks.

Then do a second pass the same way, with pianist playing tenor on one and bass on the other while listening to the first two tracks to stay in sync.

Now you have your four seperate parts done in only two passes through the song. And without making it particularly hard for the pianist.

Now you can highlite each part in turn in four different mixes. If you don't have multitrack audio, do the same method but with a sequencer. This may be preferable anyway, because it is easier to fix any mistakes (40 minutes is a long time to play completely error-free!) and because you can change to a different sound if you wish for the highlited part.
 
Not a "pro", however, the way male and female "barbershoppers"
learn their parts is without any keyboard assistance.
(not really needed anyway!-that could be another thread)
Just record the "supporting" parts on either the left or right channel, then put the "predominant" part on the other.
That way as they become more familiar with their part, hopefully
they can sing along with the backing CD ala karaoke without
hearing the predominant part.
Trust me, it works great! If they really practice to the CD...

Chris
 
And if you really want to know the best way to have them improve
here's how;

1) Make the CD as stated in my prior thread.
2) Have the "section leaders" in each vocal category instruct
and test each choir singer individually.
3) Have them rehearse their songs in a quartet, with 3 strong
singers doing their parts, with each choir member.

Takes time, however, that's how choruses make big gains!

Chris
 
Damn! All of a sudden, lots of barbershop-related topics! Whod'a thunk it?

Most barbershop learning tapes (which is basically exactly what you're doing here) have the tune 4 times, back to back. First, with all 4 parts in the proper balance. Then, with the "featured" part up 6-10dB hotter than the proper blend would need, to make it more audible. Then, with the "featured" part dropped out altogether, in karaoke mode. Then one more time with all 4 parts in the proper balance. Having the four passes makes it easy for auditory learners to nail the tune- 90% of the time, they'll do it in the car on the way to rehearsal.

There is actually a small cottage industry in doing these learning tapes for the barbershop community. The amount folks charge usually doesn't leave much profit for them, given the time it takes, but they can do it with a portastudio- and they probably get pretty quick at it after practice. I've done a few of these, with my wife providing the vocalizations. Good fun.

You aren't going to do 4 passes with a 40-minute piece, though. The hot setup would be to do the panning thing Chessparov suggested, so that folks could pop or kill their part as they wished. But you're still going to need to make 4 separate mixes (one per section), no matter how you slice it.

One caution, though: most vocalists who are auditory learners will work better with a voice to follow (for phrasing, interpretation, and the like) rather than a keyboard playing their line. If they need a tape instead of coming off the paper, they need all the help they can get. My advice? Get the keyboard player to do the scratch track. Then have a good, accomplished vocalist or two (maybe the section leaders!) come over and overdub the _actual_ vocal part for each section- provide the wine, and only open it after successful takes... You can then dub 4 mixes, with each isolating one section in one track, and the other three in the other. The section leads certainly ought to be willing to do this: having the learning mixes will make for _much_ less work for them.

And yes: it is going to take time. Lots of time. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch... Did I mention that vocalists can be very demanding people? (;-)

Good luck, and have fun! Doing this well can lead to getting a lot of work in the vocal arena- if you _want_ that...

Dadgum, Chessparov- you must be in SPEBSQA somewhere! Chorus, quartet, or both?
 
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